This Election Day, Massachusetts voters will decide whether to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state — a hotly contested ballot measure that’s drawn more than $34 million in fundraising among the two sides and garnered national attention, with parents of students of color and advocates for minority students on both sides of the issue.

Question 2 on the state’s ballot would allow for the creation of 12 new charter schools or the expansion of existing campuses each year, lifting the statewide cap of 120.

Proponents, including U.S. Secretary of Education John King, have said charter schools play a crucial role in improving student learning and closing the achievement gaps. On the other hand, opponents of the measure — among them Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh — argue that these publicly funded, privately operated schools perpetuate inequities by taking resources away from the traditional public schools that educate large numbers of minority children.

While the referendum would not affect 96 percent of school districts in the state, it has the potential to heavily affect Latino students, who make up 71 percent of the student population in the districts that would be eligible for charter expansion. Last year, The Boston Globe reports, 58 percent of charter school students in Massachusetts were black and Latino, compared with 27 percent in schools statewide.

A recent report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools suggests support for charter schools is growing among Latino families nationwide. The number of Latino students in these schools grew from 21 percent of the student population in the 2003-04 school year to 30 percent in 2013-14, according to the advocacy organization. Also, 85 percent of Latino parents said they favor allowing families to choose their public school, regardless of where they live, according to a nationally representative poll commissioned by the alliance.

A Stanford University study of charter schools in urban areas found Hispanic students and students learning English as a second language see stronger academic growth in charter schools when compared to peers in traditional public schools. This holds true in Massachusetts, where Latino students and English-language learners in charter schools have higher proficiency rates on the state’s standardized assessment when compared to their peers in more traditional schools, according to an analysis by The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The achievement gap between white and Latino students is also lower in the state’s charter schools.

But charter schools in Massachusetts and elsewhere have been criticized for appearing to exacerbate school segregation. In cities like Boston, Lawrence and Lynn, Massachusetts, charters enroll larger proportions of minority students than traditional public schools. In some urban areas, more than 90 percent of charter school students are black and Latino, according to the Globe.

Irlande Plancher, a Haitian immigrant in the same neighborhood plans to vote “no” after witnessing the closure of two traditional public schools in her area that also is now home to four charter schools.

“I think whatever we have is enough,” said Plancher, whose youngest child attended a charter school. “We cannot pick and choose which kids we educate and leave the rest out.”

According to a WBUR poll, as of September, 48 percent of the state’s voters planned to vote with Plancher, compared with 41 percent who favored the ballot measure.

In Massachusetts, a referendum on charter schools is drawing national attention. At issue is whether to raise the state cap on the number of independently operated, publicly funded campuses, and allow existing schools to boost enrollment. But there is also unusually aggressive – and expensive — campaigning on both sides of the issue, raising questions about outside influence on the decision before Massachusetts voters.

James Vaznis of The Boston Globe talks with EWA public editor Emily Richmond about what’s at stake on the upcoming ballot, whether the Bay State’s reputation for high-achieving charter schools pans out, and how questions of diversity and equity factor into the fight.

With so much attention focused on the campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, voters could be forgiven for forgetting they’ll be asked to decide plenty more in November. And the stakes are high for K-12 education in state-level elections, including races for governor, state education chief, and legislative seats, plus ballot measures on education funding and charter schools.

“The spread of charter schools throughout the East Bay and California is often viewed as a blessing or curse, depending on whom you ask,” a recent Contra Costa Times article begins.

But among Latinos in the area, it would appear to be the former, according to the newspaper’s analysis of charter school demographics in Oakland, California, where charter schools have seen their enrollment nearly triple over the past decade.

More than six decades since the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision declared that segregated schools are “inherently unequal,” Latino students from low-income backgrounds are becoming increasingly isolated in public schools across the country.

The most-segregated schools Latinos attend often have fewer resources, including less access to Advanced Placement courses and Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs, compared with schools with high populations of affluent and white students.